Daniel's confession, intercession and plea. God's answer

Chapter 9 gives us a vision concerning the people and the holy
city, consequent on Daniel's confession and intercession. It is, as
has been remarked, in connection with the oppression of the western
power. Indeed, the details relate to oppression. The prophet had
understood (not by a direct revelation, but by the study of Jeremiah's
prophecy, by the use of those ordinary means that are within the reach
of the spiritual man) that the captivity, the duration of which
Jeremiah had announced, was near its end. The effect on Daniel's mind
(true sign of a prophet of God) was to produce an ardent intercession
on behalf of the desolate sanctuary, and the city which Jehovah
loved. He pours out his heart in confession before God, acknowledging
the sin of the people and of their kings, the hardness of their
hearts, and the righteousness of God in bringing evil upon them. He
pleads the mercies of God, and demands favour for Jehovah's own
sake. The prophecy is God's answer to his prayer. Seventy weeks are
determined upon the people of Daniel and upon his holy city. Jehovah
does not yet acknowledge them definitely for His own; but He accepts
the intercession of the prophet, as He had formerly done that of
Moses, by saying to Daniel, "thy people and thy city."
Daniel stands in the place of mediator. He has the mind of God -- His
words; and thus he can intercede (compare on this deeply interesting
point, Gen. 20: 7; Jer. 27: 18; John 15: 7).

God's revelation: His seventy weeks upon the people and the holy
city

At the end of these seventy weeks, separated from among the ages,
the time should come, decreed of God, to finish the transgression, to
seal up, that is, to make an end of sin, and to put it away; to pardon
iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness; to seal up [all]
vision and prophecy, and to anoint the holy of holies: this, observe,
with respect to the people of Israel and to the city. It is the entire
re-establishment of the people, and of the city, in grace.

The three parts of the seventy weeks

This period of seventy weeks is divided into three parts -- seven,
sixty-two, and one. During the first part, or the seven weeks, the
desolate city and its overthrown walls would be rebuilt in troublous
times, or in the strait of times. After sixty-two weeks, that is,
after sixty-nine altogether, the Messiah should be cut off, and should
have nothing (this is the true sense of the words). He to whom the
kingdom and the glory belonged, instead of receiving them, should be
cut off and have nothing. But after this event the city and the
sanctuary, which had been rebuilt, should be destroyed, and the end
should be like a desolating flood; and there should be an ordinance,
or determinate decree, of desolation until the end of the war. This
is, in general, the complete history of the desolations. Sixty-nine
weeks have been accomplished -- after that, the Messiah is cut off;
but the precise moment at which this takes place is not indicated. The
course of the seventy weeks is thus entirely interrupted. The cutting
off of the Messiah was not the moment of the re-establishment of the
people and of the city. The result is plainly announced -- a period of
desolation until the end: its duration is not given. We shall find in
chapter 11 the same manner of treating an analogous period. The people
of a prince who was yet to come should destroy the city.

The seventieth week: its last half

After this, the Spirit of God takes up the seventieth week, the
details of which were not yet unfolded. The prince that shall come
confirms a covenant with the mass of the Jews. (The form of the word
many [1] indicates the mass of the people). This is the first thing
that characterises the week; the Jews form an alliance with the head,
at that day, of the people who had formerly overthrown their city and
their sanctuary. They form an alliance with the head of the Roman
Empire. This refers to the week as a whole. But, the half of the week
spent [2] , things assume another aspect. This head causes the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and on account of the protection
of idols, there is a desolator; and until the consummation that is
determined [3] , there shall be poured [judgment] upon the desolate.

The seventy weeks as a brief history of the period to elapse until
judgment on the Jews was past

That which is here announced, then, is, that seventy weeks are set
apart for the history of the city and people of Daniel. During these
seventy weeks, God is in relationship with Israel [4]
; nevertheless, not immediately so, but in connection with the faith
of the believing remnant, of a Daniel, of an intercession which,
linking itself with the existence of a remnant, serves as a bond
between God and the people: an intercession without which the people
would be rejected. It is the same principle as that which governed the
relations between God and the people by means of Moses, after the
golden calf -- the people being called the people of Daniel, as
formerly the people of Moses. This position is remarkable, as taking
place after the establishment of the authority of the Gentiles. The
Jews are at Jerusalem, but the Gentiles reign, although the empire of
Babylon is overthrown. In this anomalous position prophetic faith
seeks the complete re-establishment of the city, the seat of
government of God and of His people. It is to this that the answer of
God refers. A brief but complete history is given of the period which
should elapse until the judgment upon the Jews was accomplished and
past.

Messiah cut off: the consequences

A new element of great importance is also introduced: the Messiah
should be cut off. He would have nothing of that which in right
belonged to Him. The consequence of this would be the destruction of
the city and of the sanctuary, desolation and war. It would be the
prince of another empire, not yet in existence, who should thus
destroy the city and the sanctuary. The relations between God and the
people were now completely broken off for the time -- even as regarded
a believing remnant. The faith of Daniel was rejected in the Person of
Christ as the prophet, and in the denial of Christ expressed by the
declaration that they would have no king but Caesar; and the people
and the city were given up to desolation.

The covenant and the idolatry

But there remained one week yet unaccomplished with this faithless
and perverse, but yet beloved, race, before their iniquity should be
pardoned, and everlasting righteousness brought in, and the vision and
the prophecy closed by their fulfilment. This week should be
distinguished by a covenant which the prince or leader would make with
the Jewish people (with the exception of the remnant), and then by the
compulsory cessation of their worship through the intervention of this
prince. After that the Jews having placed themselves under the
protection of idols -- this unclean spirit, long driven out of the
people, having again entered into them with seven others worse than
himself, the desolator comes, and the final judgments are inflicted on
the people -- terrible judgments; but the extent of which is
definitely fixed by God when their measure shall be full. Thus we find
a very precise answer is given to the prophet's request; an answer
which very distinctly unfolds the consequences of the connection of
Daniel's people with the Gentile power. Their position is very clearly
set forth, while the relationship with God, by means of the prophet's
intercession, still exists.

Messiah's rejection, the Jews dispersion and the great tribulation

The prophecy announces at the same time the general fact of the
people's desolation after the sixty-ninth week was past, and (with a
seeming lull from the favour of the beast), on to the end of the
seventieth, occasioned by their rejection of the Messiah, which took
place at the very time when the promise attached to the prophecy
should have been on the point of fulfilment; and the rejection of whom
(coming in the name of His Father) has led to the long dispersion of
the Jews, which will continue until the time of their being gathered,
a prey to the iniquity of the head of the Gentiles; the time, in fact,
of their falling into the hands of the one who should come in his own
name -- a sorrowful condition developed during the last week, but to
which God has set a limit; and beyond that, no malice of the enemy can
reach.

[1] The word "many" has an article prefixed to it in
the Hebrew. The same thing is the case in other parts of Daniel, to
which we shall draw the reader's attention, and which clearly prove
that the mass of the people are in question -- "the many."
The same form of phrase is found in Greek. 2 Cor. 2: 6; 9: 2.

[2] We may observe that the Lord only speaks expressly of the last
half-week, of the time of tribulation which follows the setting up of
the idol that maketh desolate in the holy place. Some have thought
that there would be only this half-week to come, Christ having been
cut off in the midst of the week. Others have thought that the
seventieth week had entirely elapsed before the Lord's death, but that
it is not reckoned, Jesus having been rejected, and that this week is
found again at the time of the Jews' connection with the wicked
one. What the passage tells us is this: first, the prince, the head
that is of the Roman empire, in the latter days makes a covenant
referring to one whole week; on the other hand, the Lord speaks of the
last half of the week as being to take place immediately before His
coming, as the time of unequalled tribulation that precedes it. If
this were all, the foregoing history of the prince to come, who makes
a covenant, would fall into the general history of the state of
things. The question whether one or two half-weeks remain to be
fulfilled, and in what way, during the manifestation of the power of
evil, I reserve (as to its full development) for the book of
Revelation; remarking only that Messiah is cut off after the end of 69
weeks. We know from the New Testament that His ministry lasted just
half the week. Of this clearly the prince or Jews, with whom he makes
alliance, would make no account. The interpretation of this passage is
clear; the covenant for a week with the prince to come, as if 69 weeks
alone were run out, Messiah and His cutting off being ignored, and a
half-week of utter oppression because of idols, till the consummation
decreed.

[3]

This is an expression constantly used for the last judgments that
shall fall upon the Jews (see Isaiah 10: 22; 28: 22). The second verse
of this last chapter compares the desolator to a flood, as in verse 26
of the chapter we are considering. The attentive reader will observe
that these passages refer also to the events of the last days. Remark
also the covenant in Isaiah 28: 15 &18.

Some doubts might be thrown upon the translation "the
desolate"; some render it "the desolator," and
"until the destruction that is decreed there shall be poured
[judgment] upon the desolator," or rather, "until the
destruction decreed shall be poured upon the desolator." To any
one that is not very familiar with the word, this seems to end the
sentence better; but it appears to me that those who are conversant
with the whole contents of the Bible and with its phraseology will
allow that the reading I have given is its truer meaning. The import
of the prophecy is the same in either case. The one translation says
that the desolation shall continue until the end of judgment,
fore-ordained by God; the other, that it shall not cease until the
destruction of the desolator, which comes to the same thing. The
translation I have given appears to me more exact, more in accordance
with the word. Our English translation reads "desolate,"
giving "desolator" in the margin. But the word has not the
same form as that which is translated "desolator" in other
places where the meaning is certain. The previous clause I have
rendered "on account of the protection of idols." The word
is literally "wing" -- upon, or on the account of, the wing
of abominations. And we know that the word wing is habitually
employed for protection.

[4]

The power of the Gentiles existing at the same time. We know from
scripture that the restoration of Jerusalem took place under the reign
of the Gentiles, as well as the whole course of the sixty-nine weeks
which have assuredly passed away. The seventy have all the same
character in this respect. It is only at the end of the seventy that
pardon is granted. Whoever may be the instrument of establishing the
covenant the fourth beast will be at that time the ruling power of the
Gentiles, to whom God has committed authority. It is very important,
if we would understand the seventy weeks, to remark this state of
things -- the Jews restored, the city rebuilt, but the Gentiles still
occupying the throne of the world. The seventy weeks have their course
only under these conditions. It must be well understood that it is the
people of Daniel who are meant, and his city, which are to be
re-established in their former favour with God. The longsuffering of
God still now waits. The Gentile power has already failed in
faithfulness; Babylon has been overthrown; by means of intercession,
the Jews provisionally restored, and the temple rebuilt. The seventy
weeks had very nearly elapsed when Christ came. If the Jews, and
Jerusalem in that her day, had repented, all was ready for her
re-establishment in glory. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could have been
raised up, as Lazarus had been. But she knew not the day of her
visitation, and the fulfilling of the seventy weeks, as well as the
blessing that should follow, had necessarily to be postponed. Through
grace we know that God had yet more excellent thoughts and purposes,
and that man's state was such that this could not have been, as the
event proved. Accordingly all is here announced beforehand. (Compare
Isaiah 49: 4-6.)